Rachel looked up from her plate, swallowed her bite of corn and said, “Fine.”

“She didn’t make any friends, she’s a loner,” Mark said with a laugh from across the table.

“Shut up,” she retorted.

“Honey, is that true?” her mom asked in a sympathetic voice.

“No. Mark doesn’t know anything.”

Rachel’s mom changed the subject and turned towards her dad and said, “So how was your first day at the office, love?”

“Couldn’t have been better. I unpacked the office, and started right into it,” he replied.

Rachel’s dad was a computer IT guy who worked for IBM. Basically, he fixed broken computer systems. He had been transferred to the IBM headquarters in Armonk, New York, because of the bad economy. His office in Pennsylvania had gone bankrupt and he either had to be transferred or was out of work. It was an easy decision for him, because he couldn’t be without a job, especially with three kids and a wife at home-- not to mention, the three looming college tuition fees that lay around the corner. So, the family had all packed up and moved to Bedford with only a few weeks’ notice.

“Oh good, I’m so glad it was an easy transition,” their mom replied.

As Rachel heard all the positive remarks coming from each of her family members, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was really related to these people.

Are these really my mom and dad? Are those two balls of excitement my siblings? Rachel thought of all the various possibilities to explain this. Maybe she was adopted? It would only seem right. She was nothing like these people she called her family.

Despite these feelings of alienation, Rachel knew she wasn’t adopted. She had been part of every family video and had seen pictures of her being born in the hospital. This made her even madder inside. Why was she so different?

Rachel cleared her plate, put it in the sink, and started for the stairs.

“That’s not where that goes, get back here and clean your plate,” Rachel’s mom yelled. “We are not your personal maids, clean up after yourself.”

Rachel stomped back into the kitchen and looked at Sarah’s plate that had been placed right next to hers in the sink.

“But Sarah left hers in the sink,” Rachel said.

The front door slammed shut as Sarah left the house.

“Sarah went to go meet a friend in town and she was running a little behind,” Rachel’s mom said.

“It’s not fair,” said Rachel as she cleaned her plate off and put it in the dishwasher.

When Rachel got back into the comfort of her bedroom, she lay there breathing heavy, her head face down in her pillows. All her emotions were flooding her body, and she began to cry. She sat up and reached for a tissue and saw her cell phone on the nightstand. She flipped it open. No new messages.

Rachel grew even sadder. She couldn’t understand why nobody from Pennsylvania had reached out to her. Rachel scrolled down her lists of contacts and clicked Dana’s name. She started writing a text.

Hey, how was your day today? Did you see Alex? What was he wearing?

Rachel placed the phone back onto her nightstand and waited. Dana always had her phone glued to her body and never missed a call, text or email.

A few minutes went by with no reply and Rachel’s heart dropped.

Rachel went over to her desk and took out her purple, velvet diary. She held it up to the key on her necklace, and opened the lock.

Dear Diary,

Today was awful. I hate AHS, I hate Mr. Allen and I hate my family. I didn’t make one friend and I never will. Nobody even knows I exist. Dana is ignoring me, too. I feel alone.

I did see a cute guy in school – Rob Greene. He plays football. He obviously hasn’t noticed me yet, but we are in the same homeroom. I hope he notices me tomorrow. He’s the hottest guy ever and has the biggest muscles. He’s perfect. Not that he would ever go for a girl like me.

I’m dreading tomorrow. I hope it won’t be a repeat of today.

Oh, and I have cheerleading tryouts tomorrow. Wish me luck!

XOXO,

Rachel

As Rachel locked her diary back up her phone buzzed.

One New Message:

Dana: Hey, can’t talk-super busy-call you tmw.

Rachel shut her phone, feeling even more depressed. She put her head back on her pillow and fell asleep.

Chapter Five

Rachel woke up twenty minutes earlier so she could dart into the bathroom before Sarah. She finished in the bathroom relatively quickly so she wouldn’t have to deal with her sister.

Rachel remembered that today was the big tryout, and she didn’t know what to wear. She didn’t know if she was supposed to wear her tryout clothes to school or change into them after school. Since she desperately wanted to wear her new Penney’s boyfriend jeans, she opted to bring a change of clothes for her tryout.

She recalled the flyer said, “Dress to Impress.” She didn’t know exactly what that meant. She thought for a moment, and pulled out a red spaghetti strap tank and blue cotton skirt. Her school colors were red, white and blue so she thought this would show her school spirit. Rachel also figured that all cheerleaders wore skirts, and she assumed that this must be what they meant by “dress to impress.” Rachel also packed a pair of black bicycle shorts to wear under her skirt in case it rode up doing a high kick.

Rachel threw the clothes into a small gym duffle, and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Rachel looked at the cereal on the table.

“Do we have anything besides Cheerios?” Rachel asked.

“I’m going to the Shop Rite today. What would you like Darling?” her mom asked.

“Golden Grahams and Fruity Pebbles!” Rachel said.

Rachel’s mom jotted that down on the grocery list she had stuck to the refrigerator door.

“Thanks Mom!” Rachel said with a smile. Rachel decided she should be nicer to her mom, since she’d been giving her an attitude lately.

After breakfast, Rachel hurried to the car so she could sit in the front. She tuned the radio to 104.7 Classic Rock. Sarah put her headphones in her ears and started humming loudly. Mark was sitting in the back, scribbling something in his notebook. Rachel figured he was probably doing his homework: he always waited until the last minute to do everything.

“Wild Horses” came on the radio. Rachel loved the Rolling Stones. The song made her think about the time she and her friends had gone on their overnight school trip to Washington, D.C. They played The Rolling Stones greatest hits album the whole way, sharing iPod headphones.

Rachel wondered why Dana had been so short with her last night: what could she have been doing? She was looking forward to chatting with Dana on the phone and couldn’t wait until after school so she could tell Dana how much she missed her and about her new life in Bedford, New York.

As Rachel hopped out of the car, she saw the different sports teams cheering and rallying with excitement. It was almost as if she had entered a pep-rally: the teams were all in their uniforms and handing out flyers trying to recruit the underclassman for their teams.

Rachel passed the soccer team and suddenly felt a longing to be part of a sports team again. Rachel had always been an athlete, but had also always secretly wanted to try out for cheerleading. Rachel didn’t really considered cheerleading to be a “sport,” but she wanted something different. Cheerleading in Pennsylvania wasn’t a very cool team to be part of, but now, alone and with no friends, Rachel wanted to keep her word to herself and try out. She didn’t know if cheerleading was cool in Bedford or not, but either way, it was worth a shot. What did she have to lose at this point?

Rachel passed the track, volleyball and then the cheerleading team. The girls on the cheerleading team looked immaculate: perfect hair, perfect make-up, perfect nails and perfectly-pressed uniforms.

Rachel ran her fingers through her hair. She knew she would need to put a brush through it and touch up her makeup before tryouts if she wanted any shot at making the team. For a moment, she thought joining the cheerleading team might be the perfect way for her to reinvent herself. She would become the person she’d always wished she could be.

Rachel walked slowly up to one cheerleader, who was handing out flyers and cheering, “Yay Yay AHS!” She didn’t notice Rachel, so Rachel put her hand out close to the stack of flyers she was holding. The cheerleader looked Rachel up and down and gave her a shrug. She then handed Rachel a flyer with a look of disapproval.

“See you at tryouts!” Rachel said in her peppiest voice. The cheerleader nodded and smirked back.

Rachel felt a rush of excitement thinking about her new life on the cheerleading team. She glanced over and took another quick look at the cheerleaders. She knew they were in the popular crowd and she could already see her big transformation from being a “nobody,” to being one of the coolest girls in school. She knew that if she made the cheerleading team, Rob would definitely notice her and maybe, just maybe, even like her. Rachel walked into room 102 a few minutes before the bell. She didn’t dare be late for the second day in a row. Mr. Allen noticed her and smiled, “On time today, nice work!” he said.

Rachel looked around the room: she saw an open seat next to the girl who’d smiled at her the day before. She sat down.

The girl was writing in her notebook and looked up.

“You’re the new girl, right?”

“Yes, Rachel.”

“I’m Emily,” Emily smiled back. “It’s crazy out there this morning. I dread tryout days-- too much ra ra and spunk for me.”

“Yeah, it’s a scene,” Rachel said.

Rachel worried that if Emily found out she was trying out for cheerleading she would hate her before she even got to know her.

“You’re not trying out for anything, are you?” Emily asked.

“Well, I was thinking about it.”

“For what? Track?” Emily asked, as she looked Rachel up and down.

“No, actually I was thinking cheerleading. I’ve always done sports, so I figure I’ll give this a try,” Rachel answered.